LSU Hasn't Forgotten 2018 Texas A&M Game
For much of the upcoming week, the chatter around Baton Rouge will be centered on revenge. Vengeance for the 2018 LSU-Texas A&M game that should've ended in regulation. Vengeance for the game's seven overtimes. Vengeance for the Tigers' 74-72 loss after nearly five hours of play.
There was the postgame scuffle between an LSU coach and an Aggie staffer and enough controversial calls to fill Mike the Tigers' pool.
It was a game LSU coach Ed Orgeron won't soon forget.
The fourth year Tigers coach said after the win over Arkansas this upcoming matchup is one his team has been looking forward to for a long time.
"It's going to be on," Orgeron said. "I'll never forget that game last year. We're going to be ready. There was nothing we could do about the end of that game, we felt helpless. But there is something we can do about it this week."
After throwing for 270 yards and three touchdowns, and rushing for an additional 100 yards and three scores in last year's game, LSU quarterback Joe Burrow was drained. The game was so physically and mentally exhausting for Burrow, the now-senior needed to be pumped full of IV fluids due to dehydration in the locker room.
"I'm excited for Saturday," Burrow said with a cheeky grin. "Chance to go 12-0."
Other LSU stars remember the sting of last season's loss to the Aggies, including junior running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire, who rushed for only 3 yards on three carries in the loss.
"We owe those guys a lot from last year," Edwards-Helaire said. "The pain, everything that we felt last year sitting in that stadium. To understand that pain as a player, it doesn't get any worse than that."
Edwards-Helaire obviously figures to be heavily involved this go around after turning in one of the great six-week stretches by an LSU running back in recent memory. The junior has rushed for 786 yards and 10 touchdowns in the last six games alone and is now second in the SEC in rushing yards (1,146) and first in touchdowns (15).
Linebacker Jacob Phillips also remembers the A&M game as the then-sophomore was ejected in the fourth quarter for targeting. Phillips remembers being in the tunnel watching the game, "torn up" that he couldn't be out there with his teammates.
"We left it on the table, we knew we could've ended the game before the overtimes even happened," Phillips said. "Some say the game should've been over but you know it all comes with the territory. This is why people come to watch college football."
It's the final game in Death Valley, and just like the players remember that feeling of getting robbed, you best believe the fans do too, setting up for an electric sendoff to the 2019 regular season.
